


Survey Mission

by 1nsomnizac



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-10 00:17:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7822903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1nsomnizac/pseuds/1nsomnizac
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rear Admiral Sem Tugrudro hereby orders the creation of a survey team to send to planet O568-1. She assigns the following personnel to the survey team: Lieutenant Gri Kwis, Midshipman Hayaso Buza, Warrant Officer Yimu Khos, Warrant Officer Fwa Yagga, Specialist Gai Fong, Specialist Titlimakhwari Rai. </p>
<p>Mission Profile: </p>
<p>The survey team will conduct orbital tests to determine: whether Usu can support life, whether Usu does support life, whether Usu is a viable candidate for colonies. </p>
<p>If the viability score for Usu is level C3 or higher, the survey team will land the Daring Hope’s mobile research base on Usu and conduct further research. The survey team will send reports through the Daring Hope every 24 hours.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Retinal Log-In recorded 9571/06/01, 14:30

Welcome, Admiral.

>Access Posting 95710215-04

Authorized Access Only. Input Password.

Password: >**********

Password Accepted. Press “Input” to proceed.

>

#####

Assignment Record 95710215-04  
Posted 9571, Month 2, Day 15 (Imperial Calendar) at 0600 hours  
Coalition of Colonial States Astronaval Headquarters,  
Coalition Bureaucratic Zone, Planet Tsho

Rear Admiral Sem Tugrudro hereby orders the creation of a survey team (Team Kra) to send to planet O568-1. She assigns the following personnel to the survey team: Lieutenant Gri Kwis, Midshipman Hayaso Buza, Warrant Officer Yimu Khos, Warrant Officer Fwa Yagga, Specialist Gai Fong, Specialist Titlimakhwari Rai.

Mission Profile:  
The following personnel will report to Goma Base (CCS Orbital Military Installation 56-01) by 9571/02/30 for assignment to Team Kra: Lieutenant Gri Kwis, Midshipman Hayaso Buza, Warrant Officer Yimu Khos, Warrant Officer Fwa Yagga, Specialist Gai Fong, Specialist Titlimakhwari Rai.

Team Kra will complete standard preparatory exercises until 03/05, when they will leave Goma Base on starship _Daring Hope_ (MIC: 10058A1) to planet O568-1 codename Usu, and supply regular reports to Goma every 48 hours.

Team Kra will conduct orbital tests to determine: whether Usu can support life, whether Usu does support life, whether Usu is a viable candidate for colonies.

If the viability score for Usu is level C3 or higher, the survey team will land  _Daring Hope_ ’s mobile research base on Usu and conduct further research. The survey team will send reports through the Daring Hope every 24 hours.

The commanding officer is authorized to make executive orders in the event of an emergency. The commanding officer is required to send a report of all emergency situations as they develop. To withhold information that pertains to the mission in scheduled reports is punishable by arrest and court martial.

Special directive I-97 will be in effect.


	2. 9572-01-01 1200 Hours

**Year 9572 Month 01 Day 01 (Imperial Calendar) 1200 hours**   
**Coalition of Colonial States Ship _Daring Hope_**   
**Hyperspace, approaching planet Usu**

Fwa Yagga stood in the shower, absorbed in her internal monologue.

_They always say, ‘space is at a premium in space’. It’s not literally true; space is more abundant than anything else. Habitable space is the expensive stuff. How old did Yura say that saying was? A thousand years old? People have probably said something like that back when the Old Empire was young._

_What’s Yura up to these days? Is she still with that mod-bod? That was a threesome for the ages…_

Fwa’s eyes darted to the huge woman beside her in the communal shower, before she forced herself to look away. The other woman did not seem to notice the movement.

_Gah! Stop! Think about something else!_

Fwa quickly turned the temperature dial down, and was immediately hit with a blast of freezing water. She gasped reflexively. The other woman looked over at her.

“You okay?” she asked. She inched away some to avoid the cool water coming off Fwa’s body.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Fwa said. The woman nodded and resumed washing. Fwa inched the dial back to a more bearable temperature.

_Fong, that was her name_ , recalled Fwa, _she said, ‘Specialist Fong, Ecology’ during introductions. Is that her only name?_

Fwa glanced over again. _Man, she’s big. I’d say that she’s about two meters tall, and she’s ninety kilos at least. Damn, her hand looks big enough to wrap around my bicep. And her skin has such pretty shades of blue and green…_

Fwa lowered the temperature again, more slowly this time, and began to rush through her shower routine. After she rinsed out her hair she turned off the stream and left the showers, turning away from Fong and limping to the dryer.

While in the shower she scowled at her bad leg. It was twisted outward and several centimeters shorter than her good leg, so that she had to walk with her good knee bent or move with a clumsy-looking hobble. Among others she always walked “properly”, unless deeply distracted.

_I need to steer clear of Fong. Being near her brings out the worst in me._

Fwa got dressed in a hurry and left the bathroom. The main deck of Daring Hope was empty. Fwa took a slow breath and walked towards her quarters. The hall, like the bathroom, was wide and tall, so that any species from the Coalition could serve aboard. At only one and a half meters tall, Fwa felt the nagging sense that this was wasteful.

_We can have three and a half meter ceilings, but we can’t have shower stalls?_

Modesty taboos were not universal, she knew. _Yura definitely spent all her time in her quarters topless…_

_Man, I need to get laid. I haven’t been off duty for most of a year now._

At the end of the hall, the door to the bridge opened, and one of the spaceheads stepped out. He was a male human, lanky and hairless, his body dotted with the ports that would connect him with the ship during a jump. He saw Fwa looking at him and immediately dropped his gaze to the floor. The bridge door closed behind him.

The spacehead walked past her, and mumbled something that might have been a greeting. Then he turned opened the door to his quarters and disappeared.

Fwa stood still, eyes on the door the man had passed through. _It’s funny how courage works_ , she mused. _That man was brave enough to have tech installed in his brain, but he is as scared of talking to me as I am to talk to him._

She walked to her room and opened the door, her sexual frustration forgotten, as a new idea for a project came to her.


	3. 9572-01-01 1150 Hours

**Year 9572 Month 01 Day 01 (Imperial Calendar) 1150 hours**  
 **Coalition of Colonial States Ship** **_Daring Hope_ **  
**Hyperspace, approaching planet Usu**

Buza shifted from foot to foot in front of the door. They tapped the packet in their hand with their pinky. Then they knocked on the door.

The door opened. It made audible a low, pounding sort of music and made visible the face of Warrant Officer Yimu Khos.

“ _Warakh_ ,” she said, leaning her head forward. <Doctor.>

Buza had never heard anyone else speak with her accent, but they liked it. They also liked that she spoke Hesed as well.

<I have those documents that you talked about,> Buza said, <You accurately predicted that they would be illegible to me.>

Khos smiled. The expression displaced the age lines around her eyes, and Buza noticed her teeth were almost as crooked as theirs, though hers were pearly white.

<Then come in,> she said, <and I will instruct you.>

She stepped back from the door and turned inside. Buza hesitated. It was highly unusual to enter someone’s quarters, even at their invitation. One’s quarters were the only space aboard a ship that was not shared, and there was a general taboo against intruding on another’s domain.

_Unless, of course, one needs privacy._

Buza felt sweat breaking out on their forehead. _Maybe_ ghayak _ <instruct> does not have the same sexual connotations on Gzi as it does on Ukyu? _

They stepped inside. The older woman had her lights on the lowest setting, fading out the corners and edges of the room and suffusing the space with a dim orange warmth. The music that filled the room was foreign to them, ponderous beats from an electric string instrument and heavy percussion. A singer spoke in a rough, deep voice, singing words that sounded nothing like either Imperial or Hesed, with lots of consonants and occasional strange vowel.

Buza glanced around. It was like his own room, and presumably the other quarters in the mobile lab. It was compact. The far wall, facing starboard, had a storage locker that doubled as a bench, so low that humans usually had to sit with their legs out, but it accommodated more species that way. Writing surfaces could fold out from the wall at either side. The species-adjustable spacer bed was locked against the bow wall.

Khos had apparently abandoned the bed for a thin futon on the floor. Buza’s eyes widened. The spacer bed could keep a person secured in the event of a failure of artificial gravity. In such a situation, a change in acceleration or a large enough impact could throw a sleeping person into a wall, injuring or killing them. The CCS Military mandated the use of spacer beds for this reason.

Khos folded the futon to the side and gestured to the bench. Buza sat beside her, conscious now of her closeness. The woman was nearly two decades older than Buza, and a different species as well. Buza looked at the pattern of thin, delicate wrinkles on her face, so different from the deep creases that would form on their own thick skin. They felt more sweat on their forehead.

<What kind of music is this?> they asked, <what language?>

Khos replied, <It is ‘metal’ from the age of Armstrong. The language is called Doytsh.>

<An ancient language? Can you understand it?>

<I know the translation. I don’t actually speak any ancient languages, though I took a semester of English back in college. I would have liked to continue, but it is very hard to learn and there isn’t much use for it.>

<Really? I didn’t know it was that difficult. And I thought people on Eigwou spoke English?>

Khos snorted. <Eigwouan is not English, not even close. It is just Imperial with an English-inspired vocabulary. They do not even use articles or the auxiliary verb.>

<I don’t know what that means.>

<Oh, sorry. Well, you said “can you understand” earlier. There are two verbs, but they work like one. “Can” is an auxiliary verb. Hesed does that for only a few things, but English does it a lot.>

<Right.>

<Even a verb that does not have an auxiliary verb takes one to form the negative form and the question form.>

<Wow.>

<Also, an English noun has a little word “the” or “a” in front of it, and in front of the adjectives.>

<Oh, there’s an Imperial dialect back home that had a word like that. “O” or “A” or something.>

<Yes, but the word “the” is used for specific nouns that have already been brought up in conversation, and “a” is used for newly brought up nouns and non specific nouns.>

<Woah. That sounds complicated.>

<It is. And in Eigwouan it is missing entirely.>

<Wow.>

<Show me those documents,> Khos said. Buza handed the packet over. She pulled out the sheets with a pair of slim fingers and flipped off the cover page. She looked at the page hungrily, eyes roving up and down the columns of text. She narrowed her eyes, then the corners of her mouth twitched up in a smile.

<Well, this is better than I expected,> she said softly.

<What?> Buza asked. <It is in a language I don’t know how to read.>

<Oh, it is just a project to keep my brain working,> she said, putting the pages back in the packet. <a human body was found on Ido colony a few weeks ago, mummified. It had tattoos resembling script, but were unidentifiable. I thought I’d try my hand at deciphering them.>

<Isn’t that impossible?> asked Buza.

<Yes, but it can be fun to try,> she laid her hand on Buza’s thigh. <speaking of fun, how do you plan to spend this fine new year’s day?>

“Ah, uh,” Buza flustered. <Well, I did not really have any plans, but uh…>

<Good,> said Khos, <Ms. Rai and I were hoping you would come watch some movies with us.>

<Oh,> said Buza, almost too loudly. Khos had not removed her hand from their thigh. <I would love to.>

<I am glad to hear it,> said Khos. She squeezed their thigh. <We will meet Ms. Rai in the common room, in a few hours.>

<Yeah,> they said. Khos looked at her, an expression that Buza couldn’t decipher on her face.

<You know, there was a time that any hot-blooded young thing I invited into my quarters would be naked and horizontal by now.>

Buza blushed furiously and looked away. <Whuh-uh…really?>

<Yes, I was quite the good time girl. I am a little surprised you haven’t made a move yet, to be quite honest. I notice the way you stare at me. Am I so intimidating?>

<Uh, well, ah,> they stumbled, <It is not that you’re intimidating…>

<Then what is it?>

<If I slept with you, I’d probably fall for you.>

Buza’s cheeks were an alarming shade of pink. Khos let out a loud peal of laughter, then turned Buza’s chin so that they faced her.

<You silly child,> she said, reverting to Imperial, “you are already mine.”

#####

Titlimakhwari Rai sat in the common room, allowing her long, flat belly to rest on the floor between her four legs. She looked at the titles in the movie library on the computer. They were mostly humanoid movies; most movies were humanoid movies. The uktuum had never developed the art before first contact with humanoids was made.

_It embarrasses me that movies fascinate me so much,_ she thought, _I wish I was less aware of the stereotype, since I cannot help but care_.

She flipped through the movie files. Not all the files were attuned to her eyes, which saw colors in far fewer shades and hues than humanoids. Her elementary biology teacher said that humans evolved from tree dwellers that needed good eyes to find fruit in the leaves of human homeworld.  

She wrinkled her trunk at the scent that approached. Two humanoids had entered the hall. They smelled like sweat and human Skene fluid, a scent a former roommate had made far too familiar.

She rolled her eyes. Humanoids were very smelly, all the time. Two different kinds of sweat and all sorts of weird airborne hormones. They didn’t even realize that everyone else could tell when they just got done humping.

The door to the common room opened, and Yimu and Doc came in. Their given name was Hayaso, but when they introduced themself, they said “call me Doc”. It took a long time to find out it meant “Doctor” in a language that was dead before a human had ever seen a katwam. It was mildly irritating, much like the aroma of sex clinging to the doctor now.

Set it aside, she thought wearily.

“You two are a little late,” she said, “I have been scrolling through the catalogue. There is a large selection.”

“I feel like watching a period piece,” said Yimu, “Does it have _Spider Man_?"

Rai typed in the title. “It has twelve different movies called _Spider Man_ , from various time periods.”

“My favorite is the one from 4327,” said Doc, “Do we have that one?”

Rai checked. “We do. Any objections?”

There were none. Rai selected the movie and settled her torso on a G-bed.

“May we lean on you, Rai?” asked Doc.

“Sure,” Rai said, and the humanoids sat on the floor in front of her and rested their backs against her flank.

The movie opened on a shot of an arthropod that seemed to hang in the air.

“What’s that?” asked Rai.

“A spider. An animal from Earth. They are also called web-weavers.”

“How does it float in the air like that?”

“Oh, sorry, I forgot to turn up the contrast. It makes a thread from its abdomen, and it weaves a net out of it.”

Rai looked at her, trying to see if she was joking. Doc did not react. Rai’s trunk twitched. _Are they serious?_

She looked back at the screen. The spider was crawling toward another arthropod, which bounced around in the air as if captured. The spider bit it, and it went still.

The shot pulled back to reveal the entire opening had taken place between the boughs of a tree, around which humans in strange clothes were walking back and forth. Most were carrying cases or bags. Words appeared on screen.

NEW YORK CITY, OLD EARTH, CE 1965

The movie progressed, following a human adolescent named Pída Páka, who lived with his aunt and uncle. The movie indicates that this was unusual in this time and place, and the result of parental death. The New York City of the time looked crowded, loud, and claustrophobic. Tall and ugly rectangular buildings filled the background.

_It wasn’t actually like this_ , Rai thought, _no one could be happy in a place like that, could they_?

The romance between Pída and Gwen began early in the movie. It was not very relatable to Rai. _It must be strange to be part of a species that stays the same sex their whole life_ , she mused, _and to have a reproductive partner as a family partner_.

She looked down at the two humanoids resting on her. _There’s quite an age difference between the two of them. Was mating with someone twenty years your junior as taboo on Earth as having sex with someone one’s own age and sex used to be on Ikitwam?_ Rai wrinkled her trunk again at the humanoids’ scent. _Probably not_.

With a resigned huff, Rai returned her attention to the movie. _I should stick to trying to understand plants_ , she thought. _I have no talent for animals_.


End file.
